Pook of Pok

We had come up from the river gorge at sunset

With the shells and stones selected for the ceremony

To the High Yew Grove site

Atop looking down

On the winding wide valley

And sheer cliffs

Atop where the sacral fires were lit

And our Warlocks prepared

Potions for travel

|For the tribe were met

Our druid lords flying in realms prophetic

Excstatic in union

Spluttering invocations in augure for war

It was I who stirred the cauldron at Caer Odor

The fortress on the chasm indeed

I was in all places at once

Asking the Thunder to aid us in battle-plight with armies of Rome

The new war-breed galvanised by the Christain Cross

Dreampt by the all-conquering Constantine

The She Wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus

Bred a belligerant breed

Who built Empire from caementicum

With pozzolonic mortar that stiff durable

Building work that had spread over Gaul

Set in stone carved in blood

But they would not come here!

Yet a cloud then passed the moon

And no sound had we heard

It was then through the shadow

Lethal came silent into the forest and surround us

The jungle monkey-men

Mencenaries or slaves

Who sent poison dart into us

As throats were slit

By stealthy blade

Footpad in the black

Throttle and backstab

I had of a different potion imbibed

And sprang to my post

The sluggard watch man!

There I grasped the Horn of the North

The Horn of Bran Gaed o'r Gogled

And blew a peal to awake the Gods

Then as I gazed down from my hidden vantage point

I saw the approaching Roman flotilla

Turning slowly up the river toward us

As to terror it became clear

An advance party had made near

Our festive zeal had made us vulnerable

Oldeast trick in the book even in these days

Roman soldiers had already sweated

Lagging in shadowed dell and behind ridge

Moving by darkeness

They had come up unseen

Ahead of the main troops

Slaying with brazen blade to silence

Or slinking with clever dart

All who might run to relay

My mind ran to skitters

My heart tore from my chest

I held my panic in deep strife

Reigned myself together

And looked frantically for to my wife

There was Danuk

Running towards the burning

Forsake, I said to her

Take the Chariot fast to safe

Take the children, I will never...

Warn all you can

I must rouse the men

And call upon the Spirits

It was this hour when our eyes the last time met

For I blew terrible blast upon the magical Horn

As fireballs of burning tar smashed into the ancient grove of yews

And flaming arrows scorched a hail of screaming death

That set the trees of the sacred grove alight with death carnage smokes

As legionaires laughed and jeered from behind pilum porcupines

Advancing a second wave after the surprise of those pygmy assassins

I blew then the third desperate time upon the horn

To call to arms our hallucinating tribe

As the roar of soldiers close quarters

Following the pilum charge

Brought clatter of iron short swords

And regimented slaughter

After the pilum advance

The blood of journeying druid

Was easy to spill

And it splashed readily from sliced

Jugular, foaming in gtreat spumes

As heads went flying, topped from torso

And gizzards were spilling lanced from bellys

Spoiling ceremonial robe in red blotches

Ending the encyclopaedia of remembered

Events and lore geneologies and prophesies

That these priests were

The warriors provided a pitch battle

And many that night went glorious

To our forgotten Gods

But it was no use

Shining starlight on the river valley

The echo of the voices

Those that I had known before

Never more the laughter

I beheld the smouldering groves of Yew

I had heard the legionaires's order

In the moonlight slain the druids

A smoking pyre they left behind

Rain falling in the gorge

Feet patter of the children

Never once more shall be heard

At Caer Odor forlorn forlorn

I looked into the chasm

At Caer Odor the faces

Pale in death

Yet still remembered

In my forgotten dreams

The warriors

Painted in the moonlight

The solemn ceremonies entrails show lack

The shizm forged of molten motion

In bodies cellestial menace

The black grip

The Golden Eagle Standard bare

The stars aligned

In malevolent sign

An ambush in the rain

Our stockade in flames

Flashing of blades

Crashing of skulls

And roar of blood

Flailing they maimed

And displayed a new unknown rage

Of a power regime

Conquering gleam

Of Imperial might

A sight not seen

But burned alive

From Rome through Gaul

The faces the faces

The voices the traces

Howling through the ages to come

Trapped in the gap

At Caer Odor

The Yew Groves were smote low

Moonlight pouring over the cliff

At Caer Odor I broke the sky

With cries they would return

But no answer came but rain and hail

Baleful bay of injured Wolf

I stood alone upon the cliff

The silver sliding river below

I almost could have taken

But I stayed aloft

And looked on down

The streaming souls as they had died

In cascade of names we had known

And features that never more shall gaze

Chariot turning fast through smoke and firehaze

Into the swirling mists of dawning morning

And never more shall I smell your hair

Within my skull your spectre spoke

In cracked puns I saw no joke

Only hollow eyes your soul had gone

I knew not how much it would torture me long

I knew then how much the loss but could not feel

Only could gasp at the groaning void around my soul

Beneath and within the burnt arms of our sacred grove

Broken winejug and charred remains

Blackened bones and you have gone

Kalaedoscope of memory torment me now

Atop the cliffs at Caer Odor

All in that ghostly hour

I made a geas to break the Papal seal

The fist of Rome my mind's lightning revealed

Sudden wings that flew high veining the sky

An hallucination that passed and to my knees I fell in the rain

As below me the silver river merged now red

With battle-frenzied blood of my people

Flowing from the soul of the gorge and on down to the sea

I alone to feel the weight of misery

My heart it then abruptly full fell apart

For I saw the last of Elf ship depart

And leave then on the waves

Within a crystal dream

I saw you far away

You did not see me

But I saw you

If you were real

The dream was true

But what is true?

I asked the Elves

But they had gone

On sunlight wings

And the magic left

The land as simply as that

I saw it sucked by an evil hand

And spat out into that eternal prison

Within the mind

Trapped Enclosed Ensnared

The land cut off no more enchanted

And make as I could

Ancestrral prayer

All on the harrowing wind

They would not hear

Or they had gone

The Gods that dwelt

In the rock and river

Mother cruel Winters

Summer forgiver

And from the stars entwined

Songs from the spiral soul

That seemed as if a glaze

As melancholic waters suggest

But merely reflect

Your gaze

And you see yourself and no one else

You can no longer hear your Granfather's voice

The incantation is cut dead

The land a carvery instead

For hungered human souls craven to slavery

For enchantment's gone eternally

Snuffed out by connection lost

Key thrown away the prison box

Effective to keep it locked

All rememberance of what was

Disremembered Uncarnate

Continuum tale

Prophet Fore-seer

Fore saked forgot

Cut off burnt to traumas

Failed

All magic gone

Forlorn Forlorn

And on the shimmering cliff rolling down

At Caer Odor in the rain and lightning

I made intention formed a quest

Within my mind

To quest myself the riddle of time

And the thirteen treasures I saw plain electric

As magic formed a future arc

A raised grail in a forlorn land

Corrosive with lies and laws

Dragged down from their Mother

I made a geas

It shall resound

And though through centuries lost

_llllllllllll

It shall all come round

Though we forget and live untruth

I Aneiren bard of Pryderi

Make quest resound

Through echo and real sound

That if I can but find what is locked inside

The thirteen Treasures shall remain

Though scattered now throughout this domain

In secret stone where wizards of old

Like Gwydion know

What they are for

And by spell that lasts through

Age of dull mind minute

And beliefs indoctrined through pain acute

Of torture and total warfare

And disenchantment of this delicate land's tapestry

Disparticled a broken band dispatched

By iron, which the fae could not cross

So they left by sea such was our loss

Invisible now within the Mantle of Arthur Yng Nghernhy

I fled Northwards to Caledonia

Yet it was too late

Here the dread battle of Arfderyyd

Had wrung senses from the Merrdynn

Who was lost and prophesying

In the Wilderness of Waste

Eating roots and dressed in pelts

Wild of eye, shunning men

The Roman Tortoise

Laid a wreaking egg of death

And burned and slew

The wheel had turned

Madness alone racked his mind

Visions of a future ravaged

By nightmare mechanic claws

Dread armies of new unvanquishable metal

Marching in file on flaming roads of war and change

The end of all that he had known

All that was before

Slaughtered for glutton Emperors insane

Wiping the memory link chain

That within Yew grove was transmitted

Secret language the druid spoke the school mnemonic

Sonic in verse remembered the lives

Diades of three containing riddle truth rhyme

Held in learned heads now split from skull

Mouth oozing blood no longer mysteries gnostic

Then with the speed of swift winged stags

And magic incantation to retrieve his errant mind

By the dark of an eldritch moon

I Anearin got us twain

To Avalon

Where set in crystal glass on the twirling seat

Was he of the Shining pate Taliesin

And we sat spinning in council

The hour after late

The tide turned to blood

By technology of armament

Beyond scope of shaggy warriors

With magic roots

These Romans a slick machine

Drawing lines to slice mean

Into the heart of our indiginous land

A golden eagle's talons

Drew red lines on the body of the White Hart

The sacred magic beast

Beyond all here was rent out

Replaced with caementicum

Barracks, road , villa and fort

We fought our thoughts

We caught we taught

Web we make a cradle

We three in magic trance trine

We hold in crystal thought

The intention so make it

To rise again and again

By magic make it so

Deeply I have loved

The girl that is from Arddeg

And those illustrious

Inhabitors of the woods

The coat of Dinogad was

Made of Wolf-pelt

Yet bore colours fair

The long grass covers

The fallen

Who save by me are forgotten

Beneath the sod

I wish I could have died first

Rather than face this anomility

And die in indiscretion

Woe to those who grown used to being

Marshalled for battle

For the benefit of Warlords

Morgan Mynyddog Mwnfawr the Open-Handed

Who gathered warriors of the Goddodin

To fight the Angles the men of Deira

The were paid in plentious flowing mead

In advance of the battle

The feasting and carousing was a full year long

In length of abandoned merriment

Yet mirth was to be cut dead

And forever silent as stone

Before the new crimson flowering Sun

Had scarce scant hours risen

There would be no longer the jest in tavern

No boast of the strongest

No slapping of buxom barmaid's thigh

I alone survive to tell the gruesome tale gory

I alone and my two dauntless war-hounds

Aeron and Cenon left the field alive

At dawn at Caltraeth the army was nulled

Hear this my sorrowed and follysome war story

These verses are writ in fresh blood of friends I had known

I saw them slewn down at a vermillion dawn

Slewn completely to shreds

By the Angles their adversaries

Too boldly and vainly quarried

I cannot answer for such strategies

Of three hundred and thirty three men

But one in one hundred returned

Before the tents of Madawg

The horses pranced and cantered

Beshod in gold filigre and gay apparel

As garalous young soldiers to war riding

Joked in their merry company

Of plunders to come

To near a man, the warriors of Deira

Seasoned, rested, prepared

And full-armoured champions

Destroyed them and their mounts

Leaving a mounded heap

Of golden haired unmarried corpses

Oozing blood that formed great clots

Stinking on the battlefield

And making high banquet for ravens

The men marched to Caltraeth

Wearing gleaming golden torques

And shining silver-cast light mail

For a year they had been feasted

At the Court of Maddawg Mwnfawr

Gathered from the tribes of Goddodin

Drinking amber mead in abandon

Confident within intoxication's haze

The ways to war would be won well

But they were minced in overthrow

By the onslaught of an out-numbering army

Mere butts for the lances of their foe

At the headland of Adoyn

I saw them carry the sacrifice

To the conflagration

And two fell quickly at their posts

Greatly afflicted were the men

By the commands of Nwython

At the dawn at Adoyn

At the head of Dyvynwal Vych

There were carcasses

A-plenty for the carrion

The bulging arm and agile hand

Of Bogdad caused an appaling throb

And the warriors of Gododdin

Who with gaiety and sprightliness

Had sauntered to their own massacre

When the rising sun revealed

The assembled ranks

Of Deira's massive retinue

The warriors of the tribe of Gododdin

Were pierced through the chainmail

With hungry axes

And their shields were smashed

With superior fury

Only three in more than three hundred

Limped away strewing blood

Only I, Aneirin, bard of the Goddodin

And my two faithful dogs

Escaped the gashing blades

That broached the battle-boiled

Beautiful blood of my brothers

Covered in head to toe in gore

My soul forever stained

With crimson reminders of that day

The swords that will never be wiped clean

The blades that tore down five battalions

And made Deivyr and Brenneich

To utter horrific groans

A full maned manly youth

Thighs astride a mighty destrier

Fleet and thick shod of thewy flanks

Fearless in the tumult of battle

A bright blue blade on his buckled belt

The sword of his virtue

And he wore golden spurs

With a mantle of ermine

He was the most handsome and brave

Lad as you ever saw and I knew well his family

It cannot be said that I feel hatred

For this fine warrior

Or the dandy army

That in plumage rode out to war in the amber dawn

To Caltraeth and inevitable slaughter

He who meddles with the Wolf

Must needs conceal an armory

Within his cloak

At the fords of Penchryd their horses served well

Yet armour was rent and helmet shattered

Their life-blood flowed copious

Redding the river with the colour of my broken dreams

Where their broken skelitons now lie

Swords and fine armour

Rusted and lost beneath the sparleling water

It is not held in any doubt what region

The only son of Marro met his doom

Adan, the Lordly boar was gored

By war-horses in grim-spiked plate

His shield penetrated

He was crushed by the metal-shod

Hooves of bloody oblivion

Inexhorable was Angorin in combat

Eagle of the vanguard his tearing talons

Sent souls screaming to die

Horrifically mauled of body

By his prowess in pitch battle

I cannot say his glory was any less

Than those who rank in spleandour

He was hacked down by Peredur's wall

Of gashing swords gleaming in the dawn

Caedawg, Wolf of the Strand led the men to battle

With the amber wreath some cute damsel

Had twisted to his tipsy brow as she teased his fancy

In the tents sleepless hours previous

His mighty arm had been generous pouring the flagons

Of golden amber which flowed readily into the troops

As his men toasted their assured victory

With the poison that would kill them all

Caedawg, leader of men

Always in the front of the assault

He gave no quarter and would not retreat

Until he had rendered all red with gratuitous wounds

That gushed and streamed till death

Yet he led his men still drunk from the night before

To a military disaster beyond compare

A terrible disaster befell the entire army

An inavoidable scything doom

That reduced three hundred and more

To bleeding meat that the insects infest

Unburied they were meal fought over by raven and crow

He fell to the fatal fangs of massive mastiff hounds of war

Bred for massacre in cruel kennels by torturous hand

They shredded the opposition with mawling tooth and nail

Goddodins bones lie bleached on the land

There was no dwelling where dainty maiden raised bairn

That has not been pillaged by the attacks

I cannot report on the return of warriors cut down before they saw the altar

Their names it would be wrong for me to neglect

The friends that I have lost live who on in my memory alone

Were hewn down in murky hells of hacking outnumbered

Not lacking heroism

Echo tells of the terrible dragon-like weapons

Clawing and burning and tearing flesh

Before Doleu their hauberk were slashed through

And their bucklers were smashed into splinters

The men of Argoed, far spread their fame

Compact their armour

In the second attack they slew but were slain

And now lie testemony as rotted disfigured bones

Picked clean by carrion fowl long ago

Leaving stark memory for me that will not leave me peace

As I see the faces of my lost friends and family

Forever appearing in my mind's memory

And clawing at my soul that is all that ever will be

This was how I met the Meryddyn

Wrapped in invisibility I stole through marsh and hill

Highland pass and lowlands wide

My heart ravaged by the crows

Pecked out along with reminder of the eyes

Of my once companions

Whither have they gone off of a sudden?

I was driven on, on by the frenzy of my inner turmoils

Knowing only to return to the North

To Gwenddleu and his bastion in...............

As I passed the country by unseen

Careful not to cast a shadow

Lest my magic be betrayed

I saw new-built barracks and garrisons

Marching file on our old roads

Straight sacred tracks now convenient arteries

For corpustle armies pumped by Caeser in wreath

And the new grown faith of Rome

Who had abandoned the many

To be force-fed the one

God by Pope who Dragon Queens stamped out

Though never truly destroyed

I came to the macabre forests of |Caledonia

Haunted by brigand pict demons

I listened hard and trod as silent as I could

But it was not to be that I saw Gwenddleu

Or the majesty of his Court and retinue

Ever once more in this veil of tears where we wake

For they had been slaughtered to a last warrior

By hand of doom of man the sword of death that takes

I saw at least one hundred dead corpses

Of soldiers along my road

Who once I had regaled in mirthful song

I saw their skulls and bodies opened and decomposing

It must have been a month since the massacre

Blundering and numb with pain beyond knowing

I wandered cognisent only that I was lost in a lost world

Broken by syncopated brutality

Wiping out my Northern family

Tribal seats up and down the lands

I have sung of in lengthy ode

Hailed Heathen Halled stockade of spears in song

Where boar turned on spit mightily basted

And ale flowed from great barrels to foam and be quaffed

Where swords were well whetted and shone brightly

And brave warrior men's voices joined in battle cry throng

Now even echo is gone only madness memory remaining

Skewers and turns in the wound my mind and soul

And so I shall die

It seems beyond reason why

I should be soul human remainer

My two hounds crafty in stealth

Who can walk in unseen worlds with me by scent alone

Transferring their bodies to the counterpart land

You will know them by their red eyes and flaming ears

They have protected me and so do still

I walk not so alone and they can kill

Have no fear that I walked in too much dread

The Roman unwary they tear to shreds

Yet one full moon their ears pricked up

And they stopped in their track

For sillhouetted above was a magnificent stag

Antlers aloft and framed by the moon

In a circular halo all atop a high rock

Then a strange thing transpired

For my hounds cowered low and whimpered

And all around us glowing inside with magical colours

A great herd of the Monarch's

Cloven-hoof court of Royalty blew our cover

And drew around us tight in a ring

Very frightening

Anyway, Aeron and Cenon

My fearless feral companions

Were too spooked out to fight

But my dogs and I went low

And they by shunting with their tines

And gently curiously snuffling

These Lordly animals made us

A certain direction to go

And we scarce did question

For their antlers could have sliced

And have done for us three in a trice

So we were manouvered to a spot

In the forest forgot by time

And true human hand

Yet there I was

And there was he

Dressed in pelts

And up a tree

Wailing most insane

And abandonedly

It was the Merlyn Merydyyn

Plain to see

The host had disappeared and we were four in the glade

Merlyn looked down somewhat dismayed

Go away you are dead he said

I said we are the only ones left

As he spoke he hung from a branch with one hand

Then swung out of sight to my alarm

For Merlyn's scent went sniffing my dogs

But the wizard appeared from behind a log

Silly hounds he muttered and recovered

His composure, what there was, to announce

Apples

No apples

Raven's claw

Scream over red rent human flesh

They came and smashed skulls

Broken brains flowed in rivers of blood

Our magic was no use

Ha ha ha ha

Gwenddleu Ceidio Pillar of Song

Brought down

Nasty it was

Nasty

Nineteen apple trees

Nineteen now none!

Llingined Cara noch

Hen Ogledd they smashe us all-conquering

Batter crush smash crack blood spurt life lack

Ha he ha he garotte and pierce break tree

Burn hut but can't kill me hee hee hee

They can't kill me they get me worse

I have to tell this sorrow verse ha ha hum

Lament the last of the ones of those I knew

The people I loved and as poet described and drew

Picture in song to praise and teach

Ah plain agony they are now out of my reach

In death-grip morbid |I wander prophesying

That which I would rather not

For the future intimates a vision grim

And I am forced to look within

The broken mirror the shield that is broke down

The high hill where three hang dead

A sickened land that's choked the thread

Of knowledge woven out

Magic words cast with no clout

Land of doubt oceon of pain

World drowning in a poison rain

I am the Merddyyn I see what I would not see

You are another it would seem a bit like me

Wayfarer or vagabond lost just as bad

You look like a poet, tell me are you mad?

With that Merlin scampered out of view

Like a swift young badger or boar

And my dogs tried take trail to his heel I panting behind

There he was the Merydyyn

Running and laughing at us

Yet as we persued

We drew no closer

Even as it seemed

Merlyn stood still

And we touched not at all-conquering

Yet toiled with boots of lead as in a dream

Then sudden quick he would spring far ahead

We knew not how he leapt

But my dogs bolted to him

As I looked keenly into the half-light of the forest

When a call from behind

You missed me this time

I can see you and you can't see me

The hounds ran around

I sat down on the ground

Befuddled bewildered

Quite run out of breath

A small spring babbled nearby

I relaxed, the dogs drank

Merlyn was somewhere

The strange old crank

Could be heard muttering

Though could not be placed

I'd caught quick glimpses of him only

There was some lichin growing on his face

Or so it looked so feral was he

And dressed in furs but mostly not

Enormous of beard

And like me skinny of ribs

In early years shunned, the weird kid

Father a demon they said

Or was it mandrake root

A poet's fate foresaken

Not I role

I have come to cherish either

It was placed on me

Sacred burden

Put the words in order

Forced by curse

To tell the whole horrific story through

Too sad to see this world

Where this other one of me

This Merlin forced to witness

To also see his people within short hours

Cut down and carrion fodder become

Offal for the crows

Here he comes again the one I saught

What says he?

Nightingale where is your lovely warbeling voice

Cuckoo come back it is not my choice

You disappear

Winter has devoured you

Hungry frost has wasted you

Where are the leaves I foraged

Beneath a friendly Sun?

Who was it that softened

The Turtle dove's heart to produce

Such vows in song?

The Summer warmth warns not of the storm

Which delivereth harsh sorrow pellets

That soak the soul in melancholious black glooms

Dun Eiden's bright fortress felled

Leaves. No leaves

Trees. No trees

Feast. No feast

Friends. No friends

Where have they gone?

Why are the seasons not all the same?

Oh that there were no snow that starves the robin

Oh that there were no hail that hammers and harms

With tempests the security of Summer

Why is time wished long so short?

The boar has dug deep and eaten the roots I would have had

The wolf that walked beneath moons with me my sole companion

Now howls in the pain of cold and hunger and will die

There is no food anywhere however hard the search

Why do fine hours with friends not continue indefinately?

Why is there death and I do not die?

I had slink up behind him

As quick as a snake

Slung a sack over him

And pulled the cord tight

I had him inside it like the first badger in the bag

He wriggled like a thousand worms

But he could not break away from my cunning grab

However much he squirmed

Now to Avalon's crazy bubble have I trapsed

My dogs ever at my heel watchful

Upon my back within my sack

The wizard driven to horrendous dreams

Within his waking eye he pronounces

His each horror as we bump along the path

Now Taliesin who I have known of old

Behold the gone-wrong wizard our very own kind

It is Merlin Merrydyyn his name is this land

When he comes round we must dialogue have

The spell it is broken

This must you know

And you must know there is little time

For once and future will be done in a trice

And magic dream it must surfice

This Giant of Albion crack under the strain

Sold down the river for political gain

In any age but the people fight back

If they know what the situation is they react

But with no magic what shall we do

Merlin's visions reveal it's true

That for hundreds of years

A thousand or two

Lost are the items to help us throughout

Merlin has horded some but forgot where he put

Some were sent aft and fore in the terrible war

I have the horn and the mantle with me

A magical sack is also in my inventory

I dumped Merlin out and onto the floor

He gurgled a welcome and then said no more

I said at least he recognised us

To which Taliesin muttered, yes

Within the gleaming dome unreal

Hovering forever above and below

Our sacred temple on the land and in the mind

The seat Caer Sidi drenched centrifulal petal

Prydain's city of foundation

That flowers forever eternal rhyme

Of tale told adventure spirit come real

For in theis land we have to deal

With atrophy of the mind sublime

And three wizards met in and outside time

Some hope in a task that will proove tricky

As the ghouls and demons on the road are slippy

And the quest is set by those with agenda

Forcing the magic men to meld and send a

Consortium of some sort to make the magic start

From some schizm in our make-up where the art

Is lodged and forgot till the treaures bring it out

From within the heart no doubt

But where is it they're hid

Is not certain sure any could give

Good direction so within magic seats that turn

At Caer Sidi we would seek to learn

Where the rest are kept

As meanwhile the nation sleeps

In gloom cast of conquering hand

Rich into our riddle must we expand

Discover recover the ancestral tools

We used before the eagle cruel

Ripped away our lore of nature not separate

Of spells and dreamtimes and inner-outer states

So the quest debate did begin

What heroes and adventurers would bring them in

Were they not all dead is it up to us three

And the two dogs and what with Merlin mad

We could do worse

We could be alone

And have no idea at all

Where this is all going.

The rainbow torque glowed a bit

Above our heads and Avalon shone

We three ancient poets of the old world

Have put our heads together

So it has begun

And Aneirin sang:

I heard your name in the rain

My soul nearly drowned in endless pain

Endless refrains play in my brain

I will never see you again

I stood on the cliffs without you

Time stretched from the past into the future

The rain soaked into my tunic

I cannot change what I know to be true

All our lives streamed before me

Where are my children's faces I will never see?

Who will they become?

This I will never know

I brave the road

Yet in misery

My two dogs keep me companion

On the path we walk unseen

In the Mantle, they in their aspect

Their ears flame red, their eyes are green

Rushing memories that I cannot bear

I am thankful for my hounds

My family lost, my friends all dead

I run from myself, light we three tread

My name is Taliesin

I hold the seat

At Caer Sidi that turns

Or Glastonbury Glass Castle Avalon

If you've been here long

I am sure you will have heard

You should all know

My story so I won't perform

Of the Cauldron and Ceredwin

And all my bardic transforming

But friends let draw attention

To the matter that's due

Yes to the Matter of Britain and who'll see it through

Let's look into my crystal and see what's to see

We three poets of Prydain trined at Caer Sidi

Our world gone disasterously disappeared

Into the pit of the Scorpion

Spinning in vortex synchronicity

Disarray destroyed our ministry

Of Magic mauled to die in our ancient See

Though half-ghosts to ourselves we even be

Wraithed upon some hill all that's left in mists obscured

Blind of visions save far gone raving Merlin

Not knowing what the magic lure

We are baiting is

But in our not knowing

Patience waiting is on more patience needing

And adamant nature one's will to endure

A battering by every baton

But only bleeding we recede not

Our conquest is a mastery forgot

Not begat of blade revenge

The stench of war

We have known none better

The full memory left the Meryydyn

Shell shocked screaming

Storm clouds

Ravens galore

Bringing bountiful buckets of gore

Poured more more drenching the vision

With precision schizms axe wielded

Where most will never dare look square

The Nightmare with flaming hair

Bearing down on you

Her avenging blade descends now on your pate

Splintering sickeningly

As Sirens sing your fate

Their sea is your foaming blood

The rock your refuge

An island made from the mounded

Bones of friends

The land of your home, all we have known

Now screeched around circled by flying Banshees

Who keen when death is coming

Now deafening the cry

As splits the ear

And the vision is clear

Sudden

A woman

A sword forged

In elemental torque

A warrioress clad in platinum

The new tempered steel

Flashing with hilt of jewels

She raises aloft

As reality cracks

And magma reacts

To the core and to the air

Lightening splinters everywhere

On Owl she flies

With Stag she runs and rides

She is the one though a babe still young

An infant suckled by the beasts

Of twilight forest within retreat

Fox and badger, boar and crow

Brought her up the laws to know

Of Nature of claw and tooth

Scent and root and swift and stealth

Animal aware she knew not her own kind

Save when they appeared to her mind

At the fountain of memory the mirror of soul

In the forest she had found it one day on her own

Then we could see her though she could not see us

As we gazed into the crystal at Caer Sidi us wizards

We knew she was the child we had drawn

Beyond knowing through blurting maw of prophesy's door

hidden in dark recess of Merlin's mind

Brought to light in desparate time

The crystal eclypses now it's up to her

The vision complete, we the magic transfer

A twisted wreath of blackthorn

Was tangled in her matted blonde hair

And a Stag's pelt of thick sleek fur

Fell from her naked shoulder to her calves

Which was tied at her breast with bone and sinew

A boar's fang was pushed through

Every braid of her unruly hair

Her eyes, blue-black as night and piercing

Shone like dark jewels of fire burning

Within lakes of ice

Paler than the Moon was her cheek

More wild and deadly the blood

That screamed for vengeance

As red wine in her veins

Opon a hart white as purest snow

She rode with no saddle

Her legs clasped the great flanks

Of her Mount

There is nowhere the equal

Of Danae Stag-Rider

Above her silent flies

Blodeuwedd the Great Owl

Whom Arianhrod had sent to protect her

Silver talons sharper than swords

Rake sudden from nowhere

And her beak is cruel

This was the manner in which Danae

Named of Lugh the God of Light

Halted before the gate of Camelot

For it barred her path

Yet she had not known that which

Was by human culture artifacted

And had known not a door of any sort

That witheld her entrance before

Concealing that which is within

Nor was she trained in conversing

Or the etiquette of human ways

You shall not pass the sentry barked

And it was that the woman howled three times

The door was rent asunder

And Danae Stag-Rider rode

Into the Halls of Arthur

There within were many self-satisfied Knights

Their Court grown slovenly

Though the corruption sat not in all of them

The table was long sullied

Within confusions of a magic lost

Their appetite to bring value for all

Through splenderous adventuring grown low

With querulous petulant

And critical quarrels ranking highest

Arthur sat on an uneasy Throne

Surrounded by Knights he no longer knew

As he had before

He knew not the mettle of his men any more

For there was no purpose to animate them

And they had sunk to apathy

Though they talked high in virtue

And at feast they all were when Danae arrived

To a man they turned head in that Hall

There were no women there at all

Save Danae and she rode in tall

And the Knights drooled

And as Arthur looked on

A gloom seemed to descend

Into the minds of the men

As the White Hart stamped

And Danae jumped down

Out of their senses the Knights drew round

And slew the Hart with the blade that is untrue

As it's body-blood flowed and it's death-cry

Rang the Hall through

Ruthless they severed the head of the Hind

And held it aloft with grimace unkind

Started advancing towards the girl

Some loosening their belts

This all within a few seconds swirl

Such men as these Arthur was heard to shout

Should not be allowed to walk about

But he was held by the gloom in his chair

And the ring tightened on Danae

Whose eyes narrowed and glared

As sudden she sprang in the air

With a boar tusk

That had been concealed in her hair

Now in her hand

And now through the gizzard

Of an unfortunate man

Too slow

His blood flowed

Five Knights fell rapid in a blur of blood

Dealt with speed genious of female guile

Head-butted and blinded was one by the blackthorn

As a stag-skull and antler

She brought out from behind her

Smashed the skulls of several

Their bodies broken fall

Danae knew not weapons of iron

But was grounded in strategy

From the God of Light

And versed from birth

With an animal's grace

To kill as she would

Those that threatened

Her sacred animals

Then there was an impasse

In the become unhily Court

And Arthur seemed then as one

Woken from dark revery

As around the Danae

The blood of five seeped

And three would now limp for life

And six more clutched heavy wounds

As she levelled eyes on her enemies

Half crouched, poised

Lustrous orbs filled with rage beyond belief

Whilst the eyes of the Knights

Shielded themselves

Deceiving still

But not showing

Assuming much

Of the Stag-Rider

What uncheer! Came the voice of the King

Belay your passions men what are you?

And he had his elite guard of friends

Round up the Knights

Who had killed the great Stag

And assaulted the woman Danae

The Hind lay on the mosaic in-laid marble floor

Of the great feasting hall

Bleeding in a great pool

And Arthur approached the corpse

Muttering soft words as he did that calmed

The atmosphere with his charismatic charms

It was at this moment that a door opened

And another woman entered in black

Morgana said Arthur

This beast has been slain

And this woman

Held Danae in her gaze

Looked to the dead stag

And raised her hand

There was a shimmering and from the body

Of the fallen beast stepped a young warrior

It was the magical Sir Bors

That Arthur had known in better days

In the fantastical castle of Dinys Emrys

Morgana looked at Danae

Sister she said to her in a message

To her mind that the wild girl

Received magically

So that from that moment on

She knew some of the language

And contrivance of meaning

That spells and magic work all are

And the Knights would not dare attack Morgana

Had she been present at the feast

There would have been no slaying

Of the Great White Stag

Yet she took head and body

Of the creature

And used every fibre, bone and sinew

And it's beautiful white hide

She made into a great magic mantle map

Of the entire land

Teaching Danae the craft of making a needle

From bone and sewing with the gut

And the fire of Danae was not subdued

Yet Morgana taught her sisterly ways

And the girl learnt a lot

So it was that one day Arthur asked

Danae why she had come to Camelot

But Danae asked of him sharply

What is it you want of me?

And Arthur said to her

I confess I wish to plat

Some of your lovely yellow hair

Again Danae glared but softened and said yes

For Morgana was there

So Arthur saty with Danae

And he plaited her hair

And their conversation

Tended to their affairs

I see you are a cousin of mine said Arthur

No I am not you are making it up Danae's answer

But Arthur meant by the plait

To establish the orphan as his own kin

Another thing not to Danae's liking

I am no orphan I was raised by the wild

I am the daughter of wind and Winter

I am the child of the dark night

Spark of light and bay of Wolf

I am the baby the living proof

Of the lore that is lost

Though I think not at all

Of rules and terms for I live by the claw

I have come paradventure for the time to fulfill

The Cormorant battles the Eel

The river runs high

The rain batters down

And evicts the Water-Vole

The magic is lost

I the lost child of the lost

I knew not my Mother or Father

I was taken in the mouth of the She-Wolf

When the fires raged

And the villages burned

Within the safety of her jaws

I was sped in the darkness

To caves where I was raised

I made friends the beasts of the forests

Forgetting their differences

To nurture the strange baby

That they took as their own

Later I met the God of Light Lugh

Who tutored me instructing

In what had happened to my real family

And of what I must do

Lest the spirits of the souls of the animals

And the powers within the sacred vegetation

Abundant within this place of trees

Is exterminated

By a will un-natured

That too strong brings it's force

The usual story of course

Us moderns know it well

Every turn the same tale tells

Of misery mechanisms

Bringing Albion down

That Merlin's future-haunted brain

Is racked in visions others think insane

But are in truth of the world where we live now

How Merlin saw all this then we can only guess how

But the Treasure's he's got or has lost

Or are scattered or hidden

Or sold at a cost to someone

Who won't give them up easy

And tasks they will set

That you die doing it

Or somehow live to regret

Imbued in me in the spiral of my birth creed

This story imprinted seeded the worth and need

Of seeking these Treasures lest all else be lost

And I am seeking adventurers

Wanton warriors and wizards of clout

Tricksters of truth who know the trap

Illusionists like Gwydion

I hear he's about

Personell with arms and guile

Capability and verve

Prepared to die

Who live with no doubts

There are thirteen treasures that need to be found

They are somewhere about this once sacred ground

This land Prydain

This Giant Albion

This bountious realm defiled

Lugh taught you very well Arthur said

But Danae replied that Morgana

Had awoken a spell within her own mind

That enabled a source of language to flow

And that it was not much different

To what the badgers had told her

So it was then that Morgana

For she had gone out

At some point in their talking

Entered once again through her door

And stepped onto

The marble-floored Courtroom of Camelot

Again she came by Arthur and Danae

And they all sat down together

Morgana then said that there was to come

A great stirring to Camelot

And it was so

|For the marble floor began to shudder and crack

And the walls shook casting bricks

While tapestries depicting glorious events

Fell clattering to the failing foundations

Yet all then sudden still once more was

And a great glowing orb had appeared

Above the Round Table

So that Arthur, Morgana, Danae

The assembled Knights

Pages and Squires in their liveries

All gawped at the Great Thing

Pulsing above them

Glowing in colours

Spinning nausiatingly

Humming like a thousand demented monks

Everyone looked on and said nothing

Then the thing began to slow in it's spinning

And glimmer colours more intermittantly

And though it kept turning

The thing hovered

Just above the centre of the table

And it became clear that

There were wizards inside it

We can't get out said a voice

Slowed in frequency and undergoing

Continuous doppler effect

And we don't have much, er, time

Said another voice

And I want mine WITHOUT cucumber

|Commented a third

It was of course Taliesin, Aneirin and Merlin

Caught within

The Four-Cornered Twirling Castle

But transported somehow to Camelot

Presumably to impart some

Magical Message of Import

This was in fact true and everyone

Was holding their breaths

For wizards were after all wizards

But there was a lot of static

And it was ages before

Their voices would synch in

With the temporal link in

But they could catch snatches

The glass tower would speed up and slow down

And it was really hard to make out

What they were saying

And it was all in Welsh

But Gwyrhyr who knew all the languages of men

Was on hand

So what words of wierdness fell sparkelling

From the crystal stupa that shone

That as suddenly went poof and was gone

From the Great Hall of Arthur

Though it looked like an earthquake had hit

The arcane words of the war-wizened wizards

Had no less impact on the gathered

Especially on the primal mind of Danae

The nearest daughter of Nature

Who was to swoon of the impact of the revelations

That she knew not from within the span of her years

But which flooded like a great river from her soul

As the people of Arthur's Court came around her

Wondering what caused her exstatic convulsions

And why she screamed names of unknown warriors

Yet of a sudden Danae sat up as one of complete alertness

And she eyed all the people around her in a ring

Then got up and pushed her way out of the circle

And walked out from the broken marble hall of ancestors

Leaving eveyone to wonder what had befallen her

Danae wandered from Camelot

The spires and towers

Flying gay flags and banners were now

Hidden from eyes not nocturnal

For it was the dark of the Moon

Blouddwen soon swept down from a high turret

Her wide spanning wings swinging down

To rush over upon the woman her familiar

And flighted friend

Danae sensed upwards and smiled to herself

Joyously cooing to the mighty bird

The great white owl lifted Danae's spirits considerably

Ans she thought then suddenly of the curious wizard Sir Bors

Who had stepped from her stag that was slain

This place was not the forest

As to which Danae was used

This was an open place

Lain waste for sightlines

And by battles

Camelot had a wide moat

Drawbridge. Portculliss

Battlements, thin wall slit windows for arrows

And evil neck-masher machicolation holes

For pouring boiling oil and the like

On enemies below

The lot

Defense plus romance that's not really real

The Arthurian myth complete

Not that Danae knew anything about that

Only that the King seemed ok

He had platted her hair

In his peculiar customary way

He had a different smell to the others

Not that Danae had smelt all of the Knights

Present at the feast properly -

It was by no means of them

That had attacked her

Most it must be said -

But not all

She had gained impressions of them

Solemn they stood around in twos and threes

Non conspiritorially

Those not sent to the dungeons

They did not interfere

With the King's intimate coiffure session

Yet stood close yet not too close as to seem intrusive

Conferring quietly to one another

If not gaily

Then in respectful tones

The few days that Danae had stayed in Camelot

Had been spent with Morgana

Who she was not entirely sure about

But whom she deeply wished to trust

For she knew her knowledge was old

Morgana had bustled her away to a tower

Fitted out for spell-craft and comfort too

And Danae was quite entranced

With this for all she saw

Was beyond her knowing

And she guessed that Morgana

Must trust her to have taken up there

Or else taken be as a girl gullible

To persuasions physical or magical

Which after training by Lugh

She certainly was not

Danae tramped on over the open waste land

She was tired

She had had enough of the Castle for a while

Though wishing to return soon

Though she planned to sleep nearby

There was nowhere that offered shelter

Whereas she might before

Have traversed many magic miles

Wild woman though she was

For she felt alone in the World

But for Blouddwnn

She found it not possibe to sleep during flight

And Bloudwenn would not settle on the open ground

Yet Danae from Morgana's tower had spied

A small holding with a modest corale

Not far from the Castle of Arthur

And she was roughly heading that way

The Great Owl flew on ahead

In the direction that Danae was taking

She was doing a recci

And soon returned to settle briefly

On the ground

Letting Danae alight

And they flew off to the farm

Which was an old black building of stone

There was a light at a crude window

Underneath a straight gable end

From which a thick acrid smoke exuded

And from within could be heard

A cracked, cackeling voice

The spitting of a fire

And the periodic snapping of sticks

There was also the deep ruminous rumbling

Noise of many oxen

Beasts that sounded quite large from without

Danae approached closer

Called and opened cautiously the door of the place

And stepped inside

Blouddwenn had offed in the meanwhile

To find some luckless prey

Inside in the deep ruddy light

Of the fire that flickered in the rafters

And played shadows on the walls

With the oxen horns

Danae could see it was made of stones

Piled on one another in a rough walls

And crammed with dirt

That the wind had blown free in many places

Letting the draughts

Mingle merrily cheerless

But the oxen did not care

And they were massive

With huge horns

Though looking docile enough

They just lowed

There was a large treacherously uneven area

Barely visible in the firelight

Full of rotted straw, copious dung

And puddles of urine

That looked calf deep

Half eaten piles of sharp holly

Obstructed the slippery rafter boarded walkway

That Danae carefully edged along

Towards a growing zone of fire glow

Where an aged hag stirred a cauldron

Over the fire to which she added

Skinny twigs at regular intervals

Spluttering and croaking

Eyeing the girl as she drew near her

The hag had the fire going on a raised dais

One of two at the far end of the surprisingly large

Cattle shed-cum-living quarters

That looked suitable bucolic and pictoresque

But which stank to high heaven

With the rot of odure that with maggot crawled

Danae proffered a welcome to the haggard one

But only got a loud grunt in return

The old woman threw a large handful of chaff

On the flames and the whole place filled immediately

With a reeking cloud that the nostrils could not tolerate

That tore at the throat impossibly

Obscuring the vision leaving it blurry and streaming

With tears just as the nose profused in snot

As the smoke cleared a red haired balding man

And a gray haired woman

Both as wizened as each other

Shuffled in from the same door that Danae had

Bearing more sticks for the fire

In little bundles on their backs

They had brought some more bits of food with them

And more or less totally ignored Danae

Who sat down on an available oxen skull

Having not been told to leave

The Crone at length announced :

There's yours if you want some

And dolloped out some lumpy gruel from the cauldron

In a small bowl for her

The other two had cheese and bread

And a little wine which they shared

And the company did cheer to the girl some

Though they just talked about cows and milking

Barley yield and the tithe for Camelot

As the meal warmed them

A wild surge of rain got up outside

And as the wine made a glow inside

The three aged people began to sing in low voices

More wine was produced which produced more song

And a bit later a small bottle of spirits appeared

So on the three incanted

Danae was loving it though there were no words

It seemed a calling to the spirit of her dead stag steed

And the barley distil

Worked into the veins

Of her brain and her spine and her lungs

And she began to sing too

Yet soon but not too soon

The first witch gestured to the other dais

And Danae knew they wished to carr on alone

The three of them without her

Sleep on the ox-hide said the first woman

A beautiful golden-yellow hide was laid out

Upon the boards of the other dais

And Danae stood up a bit uncertainly

But keeled herself and aimed gratefully

Towards her designated place of slumber

Which, unlike the rest of the ancient lowly barn

Where lived these salt of the earth

Next to their beasts and their stench and insects

Was a lovely rich bed of lucsious yellow oxen hair

Not half perished dung-splattered flea-ridden or bristly

And as soon as she lay down there

Danae fell soundly and contentedly asleep

As soon as sleep took her Danae received of a vision in a dream

She was sailing on Arthur's fair and swift ship Prydain

Over a sea that foamed with waves that seemed

Like the hills and valleys of the land itself

Full of sheep and leaping lambs and goats that roam

Just the same but of marine nature

For it was the lands of Mananan McLyr of the Sea

That Arthur and his Crew

Traversed valiently and in such nautical style

Real brine was in her breath and salt-caked

Her matted hair

It was the same old magical galleon that had sailed

Questing for the Spoils of Annwn

And a veritable vessel of pagan fame

Danae found herself out mending the rigging

Attired for the ocean wave

In sea green silk breeches

Inlaid with a gold broquade

And a swashbuckling white satin shirt

With buttons made of small jade stones

A thick belt was on her waist and boots

Were upon her feet both of Cordovan leather

And of course the obligatory black tricorne

Was perched on her head

Such as that an adventurous

Bosun like herself had earned the rank to wear

And that had a silver band with a fake buckle

Sturdy at the capstan toiled Arthur

Symultaniously overseeing the deck

Shouting orders to unnamed of the crew

Above the swirl of the Sea

He wore a mantlet of purple

With white fringes of albino fox's fur

Over a tunic and hose of Totnes hemp

Pigmented in Royal greens

On his left forefinger

Was a golden gift ring

That bore a deep and large

Sparkeling emerald eye

Held within a circle of sapphire

His mighty belt

Was made by Manavydan's skill

From the same Spanish leather

That Danae wore

His shoes were sea-worthy

And practical and black

Yet crusted with thirteen

Diamond star halos apiece

They in Regallity nothing lacked

In the fo'castle Sir Cai

Arthur's squire from youth

And closest companion

With Sir Bedwyr the One-Handed

Worked on sexton and chart

These were most close friended Knights

And wore a similar garb to one another

For it was comprised

They wore turquoise silk shirts

Under bright green tabards

Bearing twin dragons

One of red

One of white

Dancing or fighting each other

On their hind legs

They wore sea-breeches

Of tangerine satin

And coloured headbands

Spun by dusky hand

From silkspiders of the East

Sir Bedwyr was one of the

Three Diademed Battle Leaders

Of the Islands of Britain

Yet he only had one hand

Danae saw them from within the fo'castle windows

From her position three quarters up in the net rigging

That spread out from the masts

To the bow-sprit and foreward bow

Webbing up from the deck to the Crow's Nest

Where she gazed now towards the high Sun

That catches her eye as she turns

And confused this moment with the surge of the sea

With it's salt smacking lips

Some distance below her

Up there was of course Lugh laughing

And grinning back at her

He was attired in a golden raiment

Of stolen Sunbeams

That glistened yet with azure and silver

Stars set with hearts of black and feiry red

Held in place with a platinum band

He had placed a pentangle on his forehead

At the centre of which pulsated

A jewel containing many jewels

And on his feet he wore boots sewn

From Mongolian yak hide

Stained black with walnut

That curled at the toe where on each boot

A diamond stud was placed

He flashed a game-board at Danae

With a jaunty, glinting disregard

It was a special set called gwyddbwyll

Brought along especially for the occasion

What occasion?

Land Ho! Cries Lugh

And the rest of the crew come out on the deck

These were some of their names and attributes

Lest to say they all wore a uniform livery

Over shirts of coloured fine silk

And their purple hose

On the back of their gray-green utility tunics

The Regal signatures of Realm

Embroidered were

The Lion in red

And the Unicorn in silver and black

Embossed these were also

On the belt buckles that they wore

Their shoes were of that same leather

From Cordova

Were crafted by the Three Golden Shoemakers

And had buckles of gold

And it was with great dignity of bearing

That they all bore these clothes

There were Gwfyhyr Gwalstawd Ieithoedd

The interpreter first and foremost

In Arthur's strategy Gwfyhyr Gwalstawd;

We would have said Wealhstod in Old English

He was the chief arbitrator

He knew the languages of all he'd encountered

And avert unpleasantness often

With sweet succinct dialogue

Around his neck was a necklace of pearls

Each being won in a battle

Between wisdom and ignorance

Gwalclmai son of Gwyar

Was the most courteous to guests of all in Arthur's Court

And was indeed his cousin

He wore a signet on his right hand ring finger

Bearing the sign of a Hawk in flight

And he would return from any venture or quest set him

Successful and victorious

He was a Ranger the best of Arthur's men

On foot or on horse

He organised the wagon trains and cavalry

Was the Master of Reconnaisence

And a bit of a Magician too

Then lastly there was Cynddylig Gwfarwydd

The greatest tracker and guide known

In all Arthur's Realm and beyond

He knew his way and could guide others

As well in the lands that he knew well

As he could find his way and take others with him

in a land that he did not know at all

And Cynddylig had tracked all over Caledonia

Into Pict-land

Where his body had been tatooed all over

With pictish designs

Whilst he was held prisoner

Before he escaped

Though he will never accede to torture

The great ship Prydwyn was drawing

Close to an Island in the middle of the Sea

That is the land

Of Mananan Mc Lyr

And he arose from the waves to address

Arthur and his crew all together

And this is what he said :

Pook of Pok

Thursday 9 July 2020

X-Ray Eye

Ain't Never Seen Shit Like That

Across the Abyss of Doom

Zombie Streets

Monday 25 November 2019

The Quest for the Thirteen Magical Treasures of BRitain